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Forum:Why did they abandon the program ?
The Reapers... In every other cycle they, they stormed through the citadel relay, ceased the citadel and through it, the mass relay network, and then just mopped up the isolated and defenceless systems one by one... Now in this cycle they couldn't come through the citadel relay, but clearly they had no trouble taking over the citadel when they wanted to, so Why didn't they go with their old program and cease the mass relay network ??? Of course from the gameplay perspective, this plot induced stupidity is absolutely essential. (if they had taken over the mass relays, they would have inevitably won and there would have been no Mass Effect 3) but is there any in-universe reason ? :The program was sabotaged by surviving protheans from Ilos. The keepers do not respond to the signal. The Reapers do not have remote control over the Citadel anymore. Play ME1, you might like it:)-Algol- 17:28, March 21, 2012 (UTC) No, no explanation is given. -Prophet0fValor It is sort of a plot hole, but I think the most likely explanation involves the fact that A) as described above, the keepers do not react to Reaper signals any more, so they can't do it without docking with the citadel, and B) the Citadel is locked up during the assault on Earth, so that conveniently prevents the Reapers from getting in and manually shutting the relays down. Other explanations (these are speculation on my part) are C) that the Reapers wanted to be able to draw in reinforcements from elsewhere in the galaxy during the assault on Earth, or D) the Widow Relay, like the Omega 4 and Alpha Relays, is "special"- maybe it's the only Relay capable of broadcasting the Citadel's shutdown signal to the rest of the network, so they couldn't use it when the Citadel moved. OperativeKlause 00:58, April 13, 2012 (UTC) I can think of a few possible reasons. First, even as formidable as the Reapers are, they still had to go through the home territory of probably the three most formidable races in terms of naval power: batarians, humans, and turians. While they had complete surprise on the batarians, everyone else had more warning. That alone would have slowed them down. Even if they went directly to the Citadel from batarian space, they'd likely still have to face a combined defense. Going about it with each race individually divides and conquers. Second, we know that the Reapers needed the keepers to activate the relay into dark space; the vanguard (and apparently the Catalyst, too) can't do it themselves. Perhaps this is the same thing with the control over the relay network: they can't get the keepers to shut the network down. Third, we also know that the Reapers use census data and star charts stored at the Citadel to plan their assault. Considering again that this information may also come from the keepers and is thus unavailable, the Reapers may find it better to keep the relays open and follow the refugees. Also, there are three non-Citadel races, so their data may not even be at the Citadel. TheUnknown285 01:49, April 13, 2012 (UTC)